I haven't kited in years and am trying to get back into it since moving cross-country. The NH Seacoast and Southern Maine are my new home beaches and I'm looking to get into strapless waveriding as my main style these days (getting too old to be pulling stunts on twin-tips). I've got some experience wave riding with the original Wainman Rabbits and an '08 Ocean Rodeo Mako board, but I always felt like I wasn't so much surfing with a kite as I was being pulled by a kite in front of a wave. I could feel the energy of the wave beneath me to a degree, but most of the momentum very clearly came from the kite.

With that in mind, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on what a good wave riding kite with plenty of depower would be. I've been e-mailing with Greg from BRM about his Cloud series, which apparently are capable of damn-near complete depower, but he's of the opinion that they're better suited for someone riding a hydrofoil board than the 6' thruster I've recently purchased. Everyone seems to have their own thoughts on what makes a wave kite great, so I suppose my question is best answered by me laying down my own criteria: I'd like to be able to actually surf the wave, not just kite in front of it. I'm new to the discipline, so relaunch ability obviously has more importance to me than somebody who rarely splashes their kite. And the smaller the size of my quiver, the better.

For clarity, I'm a 94kg rider. Would appreciate any constructive insight anyone has!

I cant recommend the Best Cabo enough. If youre looking for the perfect wave kite its the way to go, De-power is insane and very low bar pressure, I consider the Cabo one of a few kites that doesnt fall out of the sky if you go directly towards it, it will sit in the air and drift down giving you time to put tension on the lines again. I go so far as to say that the Cabo saved my life when being way too far out on the ocean all by myself the wind died down considerably and the only thing getting me back to shore was how much this kite was trying its best to stay in the sky

I recommend getting 2016 and up.

Also considering brand availability in your area you might want to look at the Cabrinha Drifter / Ozone Reo / BWS Aneema.
all made specifically for waves.

I have a quiver of best 2015 Cabo 11 / 9 / 7 and I got them at Real Watersports, they are currently waiting to get the new cabos in.

Yeah back when I was wave kite shopping I checked out some reviews on the SST as well, only thing that I didnt like about it was that you couldnt safely self launch or self land due to how the leading edge keeps trying to lift off in stronger winds when parked on the beach. other than that looks like a solid wave kite! slingshot might have changed that problem in newer versions of the SST, not sure.

PS: and yeah, putting sand on the kite is an option but its still an issue I can do without ; )

I haven't kited in years and am trying to get back into it since moving cross-country. The NH Seacoast and Southern Maine are my new home beaches and I'm looking to get into strapless waveriding as my main style these days (getting too old to be pulling stunts on twin-tips). I've got some experience wave riding with the original Wainman Rabbits and an '08 Ocean Rodeo Mako board, but I always felt like I wasn't so much surfing with a kite as I was being pulled by a kite in front of a wave. I could feel the energy of the wave beneath me to a degree, but most of the momentum very clearly came from the kite.

With that in mind, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on what a good wave riding kite with plenty of depower would be. I've been e-mailing with Greg from BRM about his Cloud series, which apparently are capable of damn-near complete depower, but he's of the opinion that they're better suited for someone riding a hydrofoil board than the 6' thruster I've recently purchased. Everyone seems to have their own thoughts on what makes a wave kite great, so I suppose my question is best answered by me laying down my own criteria: I'd like to be able to actually surf the wave, not just kite in front of it. I'm new to the discipline, so relaunch ability obviously has more importance to me than somebody who rarely splashes their kite. And the smaller the size of my quiver, the better.

For clarity, I'm a 94kg rider. Would appreciate any constructive insight anyone has!

Have a look at www.switchkites.com have a look and read at the Element V5 great kites!
or Ozone Reo V4...
cheers dude

For surf application with a lot of depower and wonderful drift, I would recommend you single-strutt kites like 2012 Airush One (i have in 9m and 6m) or more recently North Mono for example. Their very light weight and superb agility is appreciated in waves (and overall for people not looking at speed or upwind angle only).

Thanks for your input everyone. I actually managed to score a deal on a pre-owned 2016 BWS TDZ, so I went ahead and bought that. Zerogee, I actually looked at the Core Sections. They got some really great reviews on other forums and web pages, but the cost of ownership for the Section was prohibitive for me. To get a new kite with bar and lines would've cost twice as much as I've spent on a one-year-old lightly used TDZ, a harness, and a 6' board so far.

Hi Ronin,
I´ve owned quite a few wave specific kites during the last four years or so (I only ride strapless waveboards).
I would NOT recommend any strutless or single strut models if you´re really looking for very good depower (which is actually key if you want to "surf" without kite impact). I´ve used Clouds, the Voyager II by Storm Kites and the LF Solo. They´re lacking a lot of depower compared to 3-strut wave kites like Reo, Neo, Religion or Drifter (I´ve had all of them). The only exception really is the North Mono.
So I´d recommend to go for any of the wave-specific models with three struts. My personal reference is the Reo by Ozone. It doesn´t have the best depower compared to some if it´s competitors (still enough, though), but it´s overall behaviour is my favourite (particularly due to it´s agility and fast turning). For me, the best depower by far is offered by Cabrinha´s Drifter.
I wouldn´t go for a model older than 2 years. From my point of view, the wave kite characteristics have really improved over the last years.
Anyway, you´ll have to try and test...
Have fun!